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It\u2019s one of the great ironies that the people in the U.S. who stand opposed to trans rights often stand in kneejerk opposition to Iran and anything related to it. One could imagine great affinity between the fundamentalist religious conservatives of the U.S. and Islamic fundamentalism, if it weren\u2019t for that pesky issue of racism and the reactive Islamophobia that comes with it.<\/p>\n
Which is why it\u2019s such a stirring jolt to watch Farnoosh Samadi<\/a>\u2018s \u201cBetween Dreams and Hope<\/a>,\u201d one of the best films about a trans romance in some time\u2026 that also happens to be from Iran. Gender-affirming surgeries are available in Iran, though with tight restrictions involving parental consent, even for those seeking the surgery at university age. The fact that it\u2019s established upfront in Samadi\u2019s film<\/a> that such a procedure is available in Iran at all should dispel some misconceptions about life in the country (though anti-trans forces in the U.S. and Europe have also peddled misinformation suggesting that the Iranian regime forces cisgender homosexuals to receive the surgery<\/a> as a way of \u201ccuring\u201d them of their homosexuality). <\/p>\n There\u2019s so much in the way of misconceptions that are dispelled here that that one could see a Western viewer being taken out of Samadi\u2019s narrative by the sheer revelatory nature of it all \u2014 except that Samadi has created such a gripping film, one of such deep empathy and narrative immersion, it\u2019s hard to imagine anyone\u2019s mind would wander watching \u201cBetween Dreams and Hope.\u201d At least beyond a slack first act.<\/p>\n Azad (played by the cisgender female actress Fereshteh Hosseini) is a trans male who\u2019s yet to receive gender-affirming surgery. There is a legal process for applying for one in Iran, and he\u2019s fulfilled all the requirements except one: He needs to get his father\u2019s signature on a form giving his permission. What follows for the 106 minutes is a flurry of conflicting pronouns as Azad is routinely misgendered by those around him, except for his girlfriend, Nora (Sadaf Asgari).<\/p>\n But it becomes apparent quickly what a tough life Azad has had: He grew up in a small rural village, where traditional attitudes have made trans acceptance almost impossible \u2014 the very existence of trans people there is almost unheard of. When he went to university in Tehran, he found an accepting circle of friends, and fell in love with Nora. It\u2019s been years now since he\u2019s seen his family. They have all but accused her of causing the death of her grandmother over the stress caused by her \u201cbeing a girl who wants to become a boy.\u201d<\/p>\n Hosseini and Asgari turn in deeply felt, naturalistic performances. They are not walking issues or symbols passed off as characters just to make a point. They are characters, and richly drawn. The first 40 minutes of \u201cBetween Dreams and Hope\u201d take the tone of a hangout movie as we get to know them. We meet their friends and see them put on a little dramatic reading from \u201cRomeo & Juliet\u201d by which Azad proposes to Nora. He wants to marry her. But of course, in Iran, that can\u2019t happen until his surgery is behind him. The first third of the movie drags just a bit as its characters are in a kind of limbo, wondering how to proceed: They need Azad\u2019s father\u2019s signature, and yet they know he will never give it. What to do?<\/p>\n Once Azad decides to drive to his family farm and attempt to get his father\u2019s signature anyway, the story really kicks in \u2014\u00a0and is so compelling it mostly excuses the quasi-aimlessness of the first act. Azad\u2019s father is unmoved, and his older brother is outright hostile and threatening violence. They need to leave her quick, the scene made all the more relentless by the camera whip-panning between Azad and her father during their argument instead of shot-reverse-shot cutting. But thankfully, Azad reconnects with his younger brother, who still lives in a mindset of pure love and compassion before the adolescent and adult impulses of shame and \u201cwhat will people say?\u201d can infect him.<\/p>\n Azad decides to go back to his family home that night. This time without Nora. And fateful circumstances ensue\u2026 off-camera. Azad doesn\u2019t come back. And Nora is worried sick. The next morning, she goes to the family farm and ask if they know where Azad is. The answers Nora gets back from Azad\u2019s father and brother are dismissive, curt, and even threatening. This doesn\u2019t look good. And the menace is underscored by Hamadi staging most of these tense scenes in long takes. She doesn\u2019t give us the safe haven of editing.<\/p>\n But the exact contours of what happened leave some twists and turns ahead, which we won\u2019t spoil here. The tension ratchets up to the point that if you\u2019re thinking \u201cwhere is this going?\u201d in the first 40 minutes, it becomes \u201cI can barely stand the suspense\u201d in the last act. It\u2019s incredibly compelling, and made all the more immersive by the inky natural lighting of a key scene at the end. \u201cBetween Dreams and Hope\u201d ultimately ends with one of the most memorable final shots in some time. In every way, this is a huge step up for Hamadi from her debut feature, 2020\u2019s \u201c180-Degree Rule.\u201d With this second film, she\u2019s arrived as a major filmmaker.<\/p>\n For Western viewers, it\u2019ll hopefully have the added dimension of generating more empathy for Iranians and living in that country. There is nothing here that could shame Iran or its government. The urban vs. rural, liberal vs. conservative dynamic we see unfold in \u201cBetween Dreams and Hope\u201d is much the same as in the U.S. This is a film that should make us all more sensitive, more attuned, more questioning of our biases. The fact that it\u2019s such a riveting experience makes it all the more powerful in that regard.<\/p>\n Grade: A-<\/p>\n \u201cBetween Dreams and Hope\u201d premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.<\/p>\n Want to stay up to date on IndieWire\u2019s film\u00a0reviews<\/a>\u00a0and critical thoughts?\u00a0Subscribe here<\/a>\u00a0to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings \u2014\u00a0all only available to subscribers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s one of the great ironies that the people in the U.S. who stand opposed to trans rights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[80511,49,48,75,80512,1554,337,209],"class_list":["post-152138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-between-dreams-and-hope","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-farnoosh-samadi","tag-film","tag-movies","tag-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"LONDON,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2205403524.jpg\")
<\/a> ![\"Ava](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1396954709.jpg\")
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